Heimgartner has lead the way for Kelly Racing Melbourne

The 22-year-old Melbourne-based Kiwi Andre Heimgartner finished three of the four races for the weekend as the best-placed Nissan driver, bringing home a top nine result in the process.

All this was despite the driver and crew for the #7 Plus Fitness Nissan Altima struggling to nail down the correct set-up across the event.

“In the first race of the event on Friday we brought home 15th in what was a frustrating day with a lack of car speed, but we tuned it up that night to get better tyre life for Saturday’s two races and finished that day out with a 9th place finish,” Heimgartner explained.

“It was really pleasing to unlock some car speed and get that result for the team after the weekend we had had to that point.

“Qualifying for the last race of the weekend didn’t go the way we wanted and so we were faced with a rear of the grid start, but I was pleased to be able to climb through the field to move up 10 positions to 14th by the end of what is a relatively short race.

“I got a great start, moving from 23rd to 16th in the first lap and from there I was able to pick my line and make some moves up the order as the race went on.

“When you combine the struggles we had across the weekend chasing the right set-up with the fact that the decision was made to run old tyres in the last race of the event, I am pretty happy with where we ended up – especially when you consider we started from the rear of the grid!

“It was a solid result considering and I feel good about the points we were able to put in the bank in Melbourne. Now it is eyes forward to Tasmania and hopefully we can make some further improvements there.”

Heimgartner and the rest of Kelly Racing will next be on-track with the Virgin Australia Supercars at the Tyrepower Tasmania SuperSprint across April 5-7.